Main trends of research in the social and human ... - unesdoc - Unesco

The organization and financing of research 803
The ecology of such developments merits systematic study. What socio-environ-
mental conditions produce the greatest amount of social science originality per
capita?
Developing countries
17. In the decades immediately ahead the social, rather than the natural sciences
are to be envisaged as playing ‘the leading part’ in increasing the overall scien-
tific capability of the developing countries. Progress in the physical and biolo-
gical sciences can for the time being left to the more advanced countries.
Resulting technological benefits can to a great extent be ‘bought in’. What
developing countries must achieve for themselves is a fundamental understand-
ing of all aspects of the ‘development process’. For this the social sciences
represent the critical resource. Moreover, professional personnel must be trained
in sufficient numbers to implement what is learnt in change programmes which
are self-determined. On this background greater natural science capability can
be more effectively utilized.
18. The role of the more advanced countries is to assist in building up the
required social science and plan-implementation capability of the developing
countries. At the present time, too many of the most promising social scientists
and professionals from these countries stay too long in the universities of the
more advanced countries. Quite a number remain permanently. Too much of
the social research being done in the developing countries is being carried out
by research workers from the developed countries. This trend needs to be re-
versed through international co-operation, along lines such as were proposed a t
the recent Round Table on Social Research Policy and Organization held under
the auspices of the Danish Board of Technical Co-operation with Developing
Countries in collaboration with UNESCO and the Danish National Institute of
Social Research. These proposals, to appear in the first 1970 issue of the
International Social Science Journal, voice the needs of the developing countries
as perceived by their own social scientists. They show what may be accomplish-
ed if all collaborate in the Second Development Decade.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Section II - United States
I. Advisory Committee on Government Programs in the Behavioral Sciences, National
Research Council, The Behavioral Sciences and the Federal Government,
Washington (D.C.), National Academy of Sciences, 1968.
2. ARCHIBALD, K., ‘Federal Interest and Investment in Social Science’, in : The Use
of Social Science Research in Federal Domestic Programs, Staff Study for the Sub-
Committee on Research and Technical Programs of the Committee on Government
Operations, Part I, Washington (D.C.), u.G.s.P.o., 1967.
3. BARITZ, L., The Servants of Power, Middletown, Wesleyan University Press, 1960.
4. BAUER, R. A. (ed.), Social Indicators, Cambridge, M.I.T. Press, 1966.
5. Behavioral Sciences Sub-panel, President’s Scientific Advisory Committee,
Strengthening the Behavioral Sciences, Washington (D.C.), u.s.G.P.o., 1962.